Brewers television broadcaster Brian Anderson blogs about baseball in Milwaukee.

Guest Blogger: Reckless Kelly

Hey everyone…Here’s a guest blog from my talented bud Willy Braun (no relation to Ryan). Willy is the lead singer/guitar man of the band Reckless Kelly. Check out RK in action: Click here …and at www.recklesskelly.com. Enjoy! -BA

How I Won The 2004 World Series (with a little help from the Boston Red Sox)

OK…I know a lot of you Brewers fans out there are probably a bit skeptical, with good reason. I would be too if I?d just read that title. But, after reading the following FACTS, I?m sure you?ll agree that I did in fact help the Sox win the 2004 ALCS and ultimately, the World Series.

Any baseball fan knows I never actually played for the Red Sox, but any baseball fan worth his Prince Fielder bobble head would also know the importance of superstitions and good luck. I?d like to share with you…such a tale.

AUG 26th, 2004:

Been a Red Sox fan since I was a little kid but, somehow, I?d never been to Fenway Park. My friends Tony ?Stapes Stapelfeld, Jay ?Jazz? Nazz, Chris Cody, and John Dowd (back then we called him Juanny D -this was before Johnny Damon tragically fell of a cliff and died in the eyes of the Red Sox Nation) knew I was a fan and had gotten me tickets to the game vs. Detroit.

Bronson Arroyo pitched his way to a 4-1 Sox victory, and even though that put Boston at 9 for their last 10, I still felt somewhat responsible for that night?s win as well as the next seven straight victories. I was their good luck charm.

AUG 27th, 2004:

Second straight game I?d been to…fourth Red Sox win in a row? Coincidence? I think not.

SEPT 4th, 2004:

The Red Sox finally lose one to the Rangers, as my good luck had worn off for more than a few days? The Sox go on to win the Wild Card, sweep the Angels (the Anaheim-Los Angeles-California-whatever Angels of Anaheim and The Surrounding Metropolitan Area) in the Division series, and advance to the ALCS to face the dreaded Death Star that is the New York Yankees.

Oct 14th 2004:

Sox are down one game to nothing to the Yanks…and my band is in Nashville mixing our ?Wicked Twisted Road? record when we need some ?trippy weird background noises? four our song, ?Motel Cowboy Show.? Our producer, Ray Kennedy, has the idea to record some vocals and reverse the tape, playing it backward. I step in to the vocal booth, and much to the dismay of my fiddle playing Yankee fan brother Cody, say the first thing that comes to mind: REVERSE THE CURSE! Ray reversed the tape and re-recorded it back on to the track. In reverse, it sounds something like ?surf the surf view,? right about at the 3:27 mark on the record.

While we were still mixing the song, I got a call from my Dad, another rabid Yankee lover, with the best news I had ever heard.

?Hey Willy…Hans and Terry Carstenson just called and said if you want their tickets at Fenway to see a game you can have them.?

?Riiiiiiiiight… does he know it?s the playoffs and the Sox are Playing the Yanks?? I ask, in disbelief.

So I call Hans, and sure enough, he offers up his tickets, four of them, in the prestigious .406 Club, located approximately RIGHT BEHIND home plate on the corner of baseball heaven and October bliss.

Dad and Cody can?t make it, but my little brother Micky and his bass player, Gus can…as well as Hans and Terry?s son Ted (we call him Teddy Ballgame.)

Within seconds, I?m on the phone with the airlines trying to find a ticket to Boston on three days notice for anything less than what the Yanks are paying A-Rod for a season. I book it and start praying the Sox will hang in till at least game 5. The Sox lose game two that night, making it 2-0, Spanks. Dang.

OCT 18th, 2004. A game 3 rain out insures that I will see a game, but it will be game Four instead of Five as per the local ticket custom, and after a 19-8 beating by the Yankees in game 3, I?m thinking as I hop on the plane that morning that I?m gonna fly all the way to Boston to watch the Sox get swept. Even the reversed vocal, my lucky hat and my previous 8 game winning streak at the Fens can?t keep me from thinking the Yanks are gonna take this one. It?s the glass is half empty Sox fan in me. The Glass is always half full through the regular season, most of the playoffs and right up to the point when the ball rolls through Buckner?s legs or Aaron ?who is this guy? Boone knocks one over the wall when the glass starts looking half empty.

But not tonight. No, tonight it?s the Sox turn, grinding it out through 12 long innings of post-season baseball. D-Lowe and the bullpen pitched a great one. Dave Roberts was everyone?s hero for three innings, and then Big Papi shut out the lights with a ring a ding dingy that just cleared the bullpen fence in right field, but I didn?t see it land ’cause I was too busy jumping up and down slapping fives and just glad to see a victory! There would be no sweep for us and, even though there has never been a team to come back from a 3-0 deficit, I?d just seen the best ballgame of my life and the glass was starting to look half full again.

I think we all know the rest of the tale, the Sox did in fact go on to win 8 in a row, just like last time I was there, and so think I had a lot to do with it. Sure, It could have been the guys that hauled The Babe?s piano out of the lake, or maybe the guy that wrote ?reverse the curse? on the reverse curve sign on the Mass Pike, or it could have even been the Red Sox players themselves. I don?t know for sure who it was, but like any superstitious baseball fan, my story is that it was the reversed vocal and my lucky two- time 8 game winning streaks and I?m sticking to it.

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